The last day of May!

The last day of May! I made it through! I will admit I saved a few posts in draft mode till I had time to come back and load the photo's up, but hey, life is busy some days!

My last post for the month is to show off this classic machine, the Elna Lotus! My machine is still at the sewing machine hospital, so I have borrows this baby from my Mum. This actually used to be Nan's machine, so its survived 3 generations and still going strong. I actually made by first 3 or 4 quilts on it when I was starting out and quickly realized I needed to buy my own machine. But using this one today made me realize how mine does need a service, the feed dogs on this little baby are great, they mve the fabric along smoothly and quickly, my machine has a bit croaky in that department. Hopefully when I get her back she'll be humming along like new!

This weeks mail.....

I recently joined in a 10 inch cake layer swap with some girls on the EB Quilters. We each sent 10, 10 inch squares in a colour specified by the other person and in return got 10, 10 inch squares in the colourways requested back! I said blues and greens please and look at the goodies I got in the mail this week. In the below photo, from the dark blue down to the Denise Schmidt Flea Market print are from Ads. And then from the blue spots to the Kaffe flowers are from Mands. She did send 10 but I imediately cut up some from the slice and dice quilt.


And these ones above are from AJ. Her fabric taste and mine is so tuned in to each other! Love every print AJ! Incidentally she is having a giveaway on her blog at the moment, go and check it out!

Being May, it was my birthday last week and at the start of the year I decided to organize a birthday FQ swap with the EB Quilters and Sewing girls. The idea being that you specified a colourway or preference and then when a person's birthday came up, you would sent them a FQ in their preference and then when your birthday came, you would get all these FQ's back in your preference! So over the last few weeks I have had envelopes arriving in the mailbox. All different shapes and sizes, some when I opened then were just sitting in the envelope, and others were beautifully wrapped with a ribbon and a birthday card and a few little extra's. Just receiving fabric in the mail is nice enough but a little card with a hand written happy birthday is lovely.

Look at all my treasures! My request was bright pinks, no suprise there hey? At the top, a Country Patchwork magazine from Xena, a P & Q mag from Mands. Top row, left to right, a lovely Kaffe Fassett print from Natalie. A soft floral from Kylie. Funky spots on hot pink from Xena. Cute retro kids playing games from Joy. A 30cm strip the whole width of the bolt of multicoloured spots on white from Lily, which was a nice suprise as sometimes the length is good to have, good thinking Lily! And Cass spoilt me with 2 FQ's and a metre of a floral print! Next row, an incrediably rich and beautiful another Kaffe print I think from Cylie, I think this one may be my favourite! Emma sent 2 as well, funky swirly suns and a plain pink swirl tone on tone, both are very nice. Mands also sent with the mag a beautiful soft Prints Charming FQ and some scraps. Next row, a soft pink with little gold embellished wasps from Kylie and this cute packet of little cat and animal buttons. A rich deep pink and red thistle and vine print from Leah. Two FQ's and some scraps which from Ad's. And lastly, the bottom row. AJ filled a whole satchel of goodies, totally spoiling me! There was a whole metre of soft multi colioured swirls, then FQ's of stripes, swirls and spots and a a packet of retro needles and a fantastic new pattern! Sort of a star version of a slice and dice. Another pattern to add to the list!

Thank you girls for everything. A great mix of FQ's to add to the stash! Who wants to do it again next year?!

Spring is hung!

I have finished the hanger and hung this swet little quilt. 1, 2, 3..... awwwwwww! Looks great hey? Once again thank you Fiona. Its lovely, hope I score as well on the Summer round of the 4 Seasons Quilt Swap. Milly likes to stand on her bed, point at it with her finger and go "the bee goes round and round and round and round and stops there!"

WIP Wednesday - Week 18 - Caitlins hanger

I finished this quilt here for a little girl back in October and now here we are nearly June and the same little girl is turning one on the weekend, so what can I make her? A name door hanging of course! Her brother has the fish one of which I don't have a photo of, but it was the same design as Elliott's hanger. So I got out the fairy door hanger pattern from Hot Possum once again and set about cutting and visofixing the shapes down.

This is what it looked like on Sunday evening. Naked! Nude! No stitching, no face, no life!

And here she is today. Her wonky smile, wand poised to wave some magic. I just have the "n" to do and she is ready to sandwich.

Its been a week tomorrow since I dropped the machine off, when shall I ring them to check if I can pick it up? Is 9.05am too early??!

Hand Sewing a Hanger.....

Not much sewing action going on here at the moment. I dropped off my sewing machine to be serviced last Friday, fingers crossed it will be ready to be picked up in a few days time. I have heaps of hand sewing to do. This is what I am working on today, a hanger sleeve so I can hang Fiona's sweet little quilt in Milly's room. Just a few more stitches.....

Quilts from the Show!

Well besides buying lots of goodies, we also got to see some amazing quilts. We were allowed to take photos which I must admit suprised me cause in previous years it has been strictly no photo's. I did check with one of the ladies on white glove duty before snapping away and she smiled and said "Go for it!" So I did....

This one is by a lady called Gay Kershaw, who is one of Jule's quilting buddies. This quilt is made up of 2 inch squares, each a square from her stash!

Here is Milly cheesing it up for the camera in front of a quilt by Pat Goodchild. Mainly Amy Butler prints, simple but very effective and striking triangles.

And seeing beyond those children at the front, this quilt is by Lana Lefroy. I liked the use of black and white on the borders for this, and how in the rainbow just near Cate's head, the colours form stars.

This one was great too! Simple wonky stripes! By Lilley Robb, she picked up 3rd prize in the Junior section for this one. Very nice!


And this one was one of my favourites! By Stephanie Knudsen. Hand quilted too, lovely.

And this one by Deborah Claringbold, its from a pattern called Power of Three by Lisa Walton. We had only stood at the front of her stall an hour earlier and ummed and ahhed over buying the pattern to make this oursleves. Maybe we should have gone back? Its fantastic. Want to by the original? Check it out here. It is stunning.

And last one. The girls were drawn to Screeching Cockatoo by Helen Godden. Not part of the WAQA Exhibition, but part of a travelling exhibition of all the Best Of Show Quilts from around Australia. A very inspiring display.

Todays Outing to the Craft Fair/Quilt show!

Today was the day! A girls outing to Perth Craft and Quilt Fair. Slight change in the fantastic arrangement we had last year, I just had to take the girls with me. Daz is away for a week in Melbourne with some Gracie Lou action, so it was either take them or not go, so I took them! To make it easier, Mum came as well and Ad brought Cate. I packed biscuits and pears and their colouring in books and texta's and talked up about going to a craft fair means you have to do craft there! There was even a Kids Corner set up where they could do some gluing of coloured paper to make up some quilt blocks, they liked that as you can see from the shots below! The lady running the table was chatting to Grace and Cate asking them if their Nanny quilts. And Grace replied, "Yes, she does, and so does my Mummy and my Aunty Ad" which suprised the lady. This notion that only Nanna's can and do quilt!



So it wasn't tooooo bad, with 3 children and a stroller in tow, didn't cramp our shopping style that much! One stall owner commented I was brave with 3 in tow, don't know where Ad or Mum had gotten to, "Brave?" I replied, "How about crazy??!" So, what did we get?

Well Mum let the team down badly by only purchasing a packet of needles for $5.50!

And here are my goodies! I finally brought this pattern called Chelsea Bloom from Hot Possum. I have been eyeing it off for ages and Ad brought another of their patterns, so I thought why not? I also got 3 swirly FQ's from them and that little box of 30cm squares. Brought another pattern too called Bricks and Mortar from Amittie. Its not one of their patterns but was from their stall. Its designed by a company called Red Mumma, but unfortunately the www address on the back of the pattern is coming up with a site not found message. Anyway, the pattern looks great, just simple big rectangles, perfect for showing off large scale prints. I brought it with these FQ's here in mind, since they have been sitting in the stash without a project since November. Also purchased a few other FQ and Fat 8th bundles and some fancy new pins. And a roll of Quilt and Tear Paper! Haven't used this stuff before, was thinking I may just try some foundation piecing soon. So many projects, so little time! I dropped my machine off to be serviced on Friday so I have a whole week in from of me stretched out with no machine sewing! Wish me luck!

Patterns to make one day....

Well I have managed to have a look through my birthday quilting books and have already post it noted 3 that I just have to make!

Jan Mullen's version of the Snail Trail. Never even done the real version of a Snail Trail so this should be fun!

And for something completely different, some crisp clean lines from Denise Schmidt. This one is called Ice Pops. And the one below is called Drunk Love 2-Tone.

There are no photos of the complete quilt finished layed out, just ones of the quilts drapped artistically over the bed which I must admit I find a bit annoying as I want to see the effect of the whole quilt! Oh well, when I make them then I'll be able to see for myself!

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday! The big 37! I was woken at 6.30ish by the girls who had slept with their presents under the bed. The BBC mini version of Pride and Prejudice, I have watched it so many times on video, worn the tape out! And these lovely quilt books below. I will admit I actually ordered them myself from the Book Depository so they weren't a suprise.....

Daz had some flowers delivered the door which are just stunning. One day when we were madly rich and drowning in money I will get free flowers delivered weekly. One day...... won't be any day soon as driving home this afternoon from a dear girlfriends house where I was spoilt with morning tea and birthday cake, the radiator on our car decided to split. So to cut a long story short, we are looking at a big repair bill that can't be done till next Thursday! But turning it around onto a positive side, I recieved lots of birthday phone calls, had two birthday cakes and am truelly blessed to have two beautiful daughters and a loving husband help me celebrate the big day. That is the best pressie a girl could ask for!

A Mosaic Of Quilts.

1. My first ever quilt! 2. Sophie's quilt. 3. Nicholas's quilt. 4. Shauna's bubs quilt. 5. Henry's raggedy edge quilt. 6. Grace's raggedy edge quilt. 7. Delzy's wedding quilt. 8. Ruby's quilt. 9. Billy's quilt. 10. Pix's bubs quilt. 11. Milly's chook quilt. 12. Baby Z's quilt. 13. Lalya's quilt. 14. Hugo's quilt. 15. Michelle's babys quilt. 16. Lucy's quilt. 17. Baby J's quilt. 18. Pinwheel quilt for Elliott. 19. Caitlin's quilt. 20. Baby Ashton's quilt. 21. EB Quilters Doll Quilt swap for Lily. 22. Cate's Dolls Quilt. 23. Captain Kingma's Lap Sized Quilt. 24. Mrs K's Quilt. 25. Raggedy Edges Quilt. 26. Baby Thomas's quilt. 27. Flickr Dolls Quilt Swap. 28. 4 Seasons Dolls Quilt swap. Spring!, 29. Chereise's quilt. 30. Quilt for Ad.

Wow, here they all are. Every quilt I have made minus two of the dolls quilt swaps I was in recently where I made an extra one for me. To include them would have put the Mosaic Maker out of whack, so I capped it at 30 quilts.

This is my first ever quilt sewn! I had to dig out a CD from 2005! 4 inch squares from memory, after I finished it totally, I washed it and the deep pink fabric bleed into the white spotty fabric, I was horrified! I couldn't get the stains out so I ended up throwing it in the Good Sammy's bin!

Most of these quilts have been given away to celebrate the birth of a friends new baby. Sophie's quilt I never saw her Mum use it once, Nicholas's quilt, even though he is now nearly 3, he uses it every day still! Lucy's and Cherise's quilt have Mum's from my fantastic EB Sewing Group. Pix's bubs quilt, Layla's quilt, Baby J's, Baby Z's, Baby Thomas's and Baby Ashton's quilt are all for baby's born in my November 2004 online EB Mum's Group. Milly's Chook quilt is hanging up on the wall in her room and Grace's raggedy edge quilt is folded up on the couch in the lounge room.

My favourite out of these would be Elliott's Pinwheel quilt, I really like the white in that one. And Delzy's wedding quilt. That is the only quilt I have made professionally quilted and it just looked fantastic! I got a small thank you card in the mail a few months after the wedding which simply said, thank you for the quilt. hmmmmmm......

Posting all these quilts here has made me realize something though, there are not enough quilts made by me in our house! Both the girls should have one on their beds! I should have one on my bed!!! Time to turn the quilting love back into our house I think. My 2008 resolution was too finish this quilt. I have 48 blocks ready to go! I have 7 months to finish it!

WIP Wednesday Week 17 - green binding.....

I have finished the quilting for baby L's quilt and am half way through sewing on the binding for this weks WIP Wednesday. Now I must admit I am pretty much a one colour, one fabric kind of girl when it comes to binding. But for this quilt I thought multiprint binding would work nicely seeing as though each block is made up of different fabric but the same tonal value. It is looking good! Getting the Daz thumbs up which is always important!

A sneek peak for Emma!

Thanks for the tips of what to post about for the next few days girls. Much appreciated. Emma would like a sneek peek of my bit of her Round Robin. Well, thats the cryptic shot of the above.... It arrived safely at AJ's today. Looking foward to seeing what she does with it. It was a tricky shape.......

Leah, I have been thinking about your suggestion of Stash Aquisition and Management! That deserves a whole post of its own! And Fiona, your wish is my command! Every quilt I have sewn, I can do a post about that too! Cool, that will keep me going for a few more days! Thanks blogging buddies!

25% off storewide.

Is there a more magical sound than the words 25% off storewide?? Well yes, 30%, 40% or 50% would be better but I'll take 25%! My favourite fabric store is having 25% off storewide this week and I only popped in for some white on white but I couldn't go past these 10 fat quarters for $15.00. I mean, could you??

I'll admit too, I am starting to struggle for thinking of stuff to post for the Post a Day in May. I'm looking at the calender and thinking how many days have I got to go? Any idea's? Any requests??!

The Quilted Green Square

Here is a close up of the centre of my slice and dice blue and green quilt. Its coming along nicely, I just have two more of the blue blocks to quilt and then on goes the binding. I like the star quilting. Back to it I suppose!

Snail Catching!

Grace decided this afternoon to go snail catching in the backyard. Well it was supposed to be bug and insect catching but all we found were snails. We found 3. I am sure there were more but don't want it to get too crowded in that bug catcher!

She was pretty excitied, thinking she was just like Bindi The Jungle Girl, who she adores at the moment. *sigh* Seems like she was just into Angelina Ballerina and now its big girl stuff like Bindi. Still if watching Bindi is going to teach her about animals and how to take care of our environment, then I'll put up with Bindi's cheesiness!

But all those snails gave me a little idea. I have joined the 6" - 12" mini quilt trading swap group on flickr, sort of an off shoot of the Dolls Quilt Swap 3 recently. I'm thinking a snail shell could be maybe a crazy log cabin block? Maybe? These rushed drawings don't do it justice, but I've got the vision in my head, I'll give it a bash.

My Birdie Dolls Quilt.

I have been so busy blogging all the dolls quilts I recieved, I sort of forgot to blog a finished shot of the one I actually made. I only posted sneek peak shots of it when I was sewing it as my swapee was the lady who organized it! The lovely Tanaya. I must admit I felt a bit scared to know that I got her, I mean she could have jigged the draw to get anyone and she got me! But she loved it and let me know when I got it too which was great. I read her preferences and thought birds, I going to go with birds. I had just gotten the bag of scraps from Sequana and it had in it the little pale blue with white spots fabric already cut in 3.5 inch squares, so I used that as a starting guide.


I had so much fun making this, it was so different to my usual colour pallette and cause I was so scared I'd make one too big, I made the below quilt at the same time. A smaller version in width, but the same height. I have just had some shelving hung in the sewing room, and there is a perfect gap on the wall where it now hangs.

Signing Up Time for Summer Four Seasons Dolls Quilt Swap!

For all of you who have been wondering how to get involved in a dolls quilt swap, here is the call out for the next round in the 4 Seasons Dolls Quilt Sawp. I've already signed up and am thinking, summer, summer, summer, what does that mean too me? Hot sticky days, trips to Rottnest, endless blue skies.... Have to think about this one. Here are two of my favourites from the last round, besides the amazing quilt I got from the lovely Fiona!

This one is just incredible, by nkdolin who has a cool blog here.

And look at this amazing one! Done by the lady who organized the swap, it is just beautiful, check out her blog here. Such detail!

WIP Wednesday Week 16 - Slice and Diced and Done! (nearly)

Well I finished the above green block yesterday for the centre of my slice and dice quilt top. I didn't do it the way as my tutorial as I didn't want 9 blocks, just one! I just cut out bits of green scrap and placed them over a blue block for a rough guide. Lucky with this style of block, being accurate isn't quite a necessity! My kind of quilting! So after I finished the green block, the rest of the quilt came together really quickly. I added a sashing of 2.5 inchs of white around the sides of the blocks in the centre and then 3.5 around the outer boarder. All in white, but it has a very faint white on white dot print, a lakehouse fabric, quite nice this print, bummer I only have a scrap of 30cms left now from 2 metres!

So I have it all ready to sandwich here. The blocks ended up being 8.5 inches too, just the right size. Am thinking of a little star in the centre of each block. A wonky star of course!

Other news, I have just listed some new fabric in the Humming Mini Shop. Do not look if you are on a fabric buying ban though!

Spring 4 Seasons Dolls Quilt from Fiona

Another post about a quilt that isn't my work but is all mine! I just have to share how beautiful this is! Daz arrived home early Monday morning, very early! I bundled the girls off to school and daycare and then rushed home to have coffee and breakfast with him reading the newspapers from the weekend together, you know, quietly just hanging with your husband sort of stuff. Two mouthfuls into my coffee and there is a van in the driveway, thump on the doorstep, van reversing. I just leap to the door squealing, "ohhhhhhh! Is this my dolls quilt?" And yes, it was! All the way from the other side of Australia from the lovely Fiona.

Look at it! Its it just stunning! I actually saw it on her blog earlier and commented how lovely it was. My favourite bits are the stem on the left, how its made of strips of green, the hand quilting of the blowflies flying swirls is just beautiful, I can never get my hand stitching that even and neat. The buttons in the centre of the big flower are so cute! And I love the white background, its all puffy and quilty. And the fabric around the putside, mmmmmmm! Its just lovely, lovely, lovely! Thank you so much Fiona, you have restored my faith in swaps. A quilt I made recently wasn't acknowledged until I questioned its arrival..... I don't think it was appreciated. Oh well, I guess that will happen sometimes and I enjoyed making it so.... what more is there to say?

And finally, look at this amazing label. Its just beautiful. Fiona also enclosed some buttons and ribbons and a little note. Milly took the buttons to make soup from in her toy kitchen! I rescued the ribbions though! Thank you so much Fiona, I love my new quilt. :)

Chaletgirl's quilt is up!

Look what I did over the weekend, I hung up Chaletgirl's stunning dolls quilt I recently recieved in the flickr dolls quilt swap. It looks just fantastic against the pink walls, fits in perfectly.


I've hung it with a peice of dowel and some little sticky hook thingys. Very technical term there! It felt really strange sewing the sleeves on the back though, how can I explain it, like I was ruining all Sheridan's lovely work! But at least its on the back and noone else can see it. Its just a lovely little quilt, I can't believe I was the lucky duck to score it, thanks again Sheridan!